Silo Tower

An old silo with a 6x6 m floor plan that had fallen into disuse has been transformed by Harry Thaler into a modern design studio.

The main motivation of the Italian firm was to save an important piece of the region’s industrial heritage from demolition. Located at the entrance to a business park in an Alpine valley of northern Italy, the concrete structure was a local carpentry’s storage for wood shavings. Standing 22 m on a 6x6 m floor plan, it posed several bureaucratic and architectural challenges.

The five new floors harbor a prototyping workshop, a material library, offices, a meeting room, and a terrace. A spiral staircase rises from bottom to top. To bring light into the workspaces, the thick concrete walls were perforated. Carried out on a low budget, the Silo Tower refurbishment is a call for ‘second chances’ and urban upcycling.